Lecture 4: Biblical Hebrew Grammar I - Dr. Bill Barrick

let's review we want to do a lot of reviewing here in these first two or three weeks especially because if we don't lay this foundation right if you don't learn the alphabet it has all kinds of effects because what you want to do is to be able to read the Hebrew aloud even if you don't understand the vocabulary so that we want to get to that place where you're reading fluently easily so that the words come to you easily you pronounce the vocabulary correctly and you begin to note patterns and it doesn't slow you down later then as we begin to put words with grammatical concepts as we begin to put sentences together we don't want you still back there working on the phonetics of the situation so let's go over the alphabet again the first letter is second alright so you've got them well I heard you all pronounce them pretty much in unison I couldn't tell maybe a couple of you may have been sitting there silent but I'll catch that eventually as we go along but this is where we want you to be we want you to be able to do these things as we're looking at them and then let's go to again a review of some of the special consonants or characters first of all what we call the gutturals or the throaty v these have special rules for them they refuse the doubling doggish which is the doggish Forte they prefer a class vowels like the Pathak like the comments like the hot TIF Pathak and the hot Dave comments they prefer a class vowels and they prefer compound schwa in those situations where a half vowel is needed they prefer a compound schwa so they will take a compound swap even if it's a hot tips a goal they will prefer that rather than having a schwa now the one thing that I mentioned before and I want to emphasize again the one of these five that is a maybe that is only sometimes behaving like a guttural is that last one the race because race can be doubled race can take a simple schwa rather than the compound schwa and you'll find many situations in which race race does not appear to require or desire and a class vowel but all the grammars include it because it does behave that way from time to time but the first four you have to count on them almost always dealing that way now one rule you're going to learn in Hebrew is that for every rule there is an exception including that one there may be a rule that doesn't have exceptions but there are some that do have exceptions so for example the Haythe later we'll find some exceptions for but that's language language is not always consistent it varies remember the silent letters are the olive the hey the Wow and the Yoda and also the ioan can be used as a silent letter one of the reasons it's not included in here is that a majority of Hebrew grammarians believe that the ioan had some sort of sound associated with it that has been lost and there's a debate as to how it should be pronounced and whether it's just a closing of the throat good like that or you know I can Lamora Sodom and Mura and that's why we have a G transliterating the name exactly how that works and when it works is still a very debated item why we don't have any surviving living breathing Biblical Hebrew speakers from before for hun BC so it's hard to know these things the vowel letters the hay the Wow and the yo'd in ancient hebrew these letters took the place of vowels so for example at Qumran when the manuscripts have no vowels the vowels are added by the master each starting about AD 500 then how are the vowels indicated for words that need the the variation to be given so that you can understand which word is intended they used the vowel letters we'll be talking a lot about that as we go along from time to time and mentioning yet the labels the bathe the mane and the pay where the lips are utilized in pronunciation are important for us to remember because the fact that there are special rules that will follow this later on as we go through Hebrew and begin to build words and put constructions together the labels have a special way that they're treated so bathe maim and pay keep in mind are the labial letters but Gatka fat letters remember are those letters that can take a doggish Lane a the hardening doggish in their bosom to give them a slightly different sound sometimes that sound is hard to distinguish to our ears and so we can't see it the the bait is the easiest one to see because it's a B sound if you have the doggish it's a V sound if you don't have the doggish but and the pay the same way it's a piece ound if you have the doggish it's an F or a pH sound if you have if you have no doggish the doggish laney is the name of that doggish then that goes in the bosom of begad cough a fletchers begad cough a--the is just a contrived name of this group that is made up of those letters as a memory device and anomic device the doggish forte is the doubling doggish the doubling doggish that's when the the constant is doubled so that in the word here shem mayor there are two names that must be pronounced and how do we know that the doggish is doubled in the main it is not a big ad cough Athleta therefore it is not a hardening doggish so it will be a doubling doggish remember the Continental text of Hebrew as you see the ancient Hebrew written here and you can also see that the script used for ancient Hebrew is different than the script we use for reading the Hebrew Bible why don't we learn this Hebrew script well we you will learn this in OT 603 third semester you also learn it it's gone over again in oti Old Testament introduction in OT 796 so to have that knowledge but our Bibles are not written with that script and the purpose of learning Biblical Hebrew is to be able to read our Hebrew Bibles and that change took place after the Babylonian exile when the Jews returned from Babylon and used the Aramaic script in place of the ancient Hebrew script for writing but notice that there are no vowels here no Val pointings anywhere here we have beit da we'd the house of David here we have yeast ly ale Israel we know that we can read it without the vowels and we have to understand that's the way Hebrew was written and so as we go through the text we want to actually get you to a point where you're not heavily reliant upon Val pointings and surprising how much text you can actually read without having the vowel pointings but you have to have a knowledge of what vowels are available what sounds were made in classical Hebrew in order to pronounce it correctly John just thinking of two different alphabets so they change their entire alphabet correct but yet I love Moses or job or whatever all the way to the time of the post-exilic prophets all the grammar is pretty much exactly the same there's pretty much the same yes the grammar has remained the same there are some changes because language changes language develops and we for example in the Pentateuch and Moses's writings when we have a third feminine singular personal pronoun what we would translate as she it is spelled differently than anywhere else in the entire Old Testament you also have a difference in some of the grammatical entities in the way words are put together in sentences and forms we have more Aramaic forms in the older Hebrew than we do in the later Hebrew which is the exact opposite of what the Liberals will say they say it the other way around but what they've forgotten is that Jacob was an Aramaic speaker Laban was an Aramaic speaker Rachel and Leah were Aramaic speakers Deuteronomy 26 says Jacob was a wandering aramean and aramean is the speaker of Aramaic and when Laban and Isaac actually made their their covenant their pact with each other in Genesis chapter 32 excuse me not Isaac Jacob when Jacob and Laban made their covenant together that you know the Lord watch between us while we are apart from each other and they heaped up these piles of stones and what did Jacob call it he called it Gallade Gaul means a pile of and aid means witness a heap which is a witness and Laban spoke Aramaic he called it instead Jager Shahada Jager means a pile of something here stones and Shahab duta means witness we go the book of Job which the oldest book of the Bible written perhaps as much as five hundred years before Moses wrote the Pentateuch and in I think it's chapter 16 when moat when Jacob our job is talking about his witness in heaven he uses two different words for witness parallel to each other in synonymous parallelism and one word is the hebrew aid the other one is the aramaic Shahada and so arame and remember that's not a surprise to us because where did Jobe live he lived in Arabia he lived in the region where Aramaic was the spoken language for centuries before Arabic was adopted so we can expect to see Aramaic grammar and forms exhibited in the language later we talked about relative pronouns we'll talk about a form of the relative pronoun that is found in the ancient writings and is rare in the later writings except on some occasions when there's a purposeful arc a izing making language to look old just like we would use VM Val and older language might use it purposely in certain settings and so in poetry sometimes that happens so Salomon uses it in the Song of Solomon but otherwise it's rarely found and we find for example in Genesis chapter 6 a different form of the relative pronoun then found anywhere else so we have different things like that that occurs there's a development of the language but basically it's virtually the same grammatically from beginning to end over a thousand years of biblical written history okay in fact more than that be about thousand five hundred years plus because you put the book of Job at least by the time of Jacob 1800 BC at least that's the latest date for the book of Job alright so the vowels we added later to try to help us understand but we can see that we can look at an English representation and we can understand what this said because we know the language so that's what we want to bring you to a point of knowing the language well enough to do the same thing let's go through the vowels this vowel is called what Pat back alright remember the parents of Pat dak not Pat pok pok pok is a modern Hebrew pronunciation that loses the differentiation that is made between the path tack and the common okay so Pat dak is the single line looks like a - dropped below the letter and then the second letter the second vowel is common so it looks like a little T it has the OO sound and this one comets hey comets Hey all right the heya silent here but it's part of the vowel it lengthens it's get further where comments alone is father this one is father notice how it draws it out longer it's a longer sound and then the three little dots is called Sehgal Sehgal let's say a sound all right and then the two dots say they say they by the way it might just take you back to said goal for a minute said goal is a Hebrew word meaning a cluster of grapes doesn't that look like a cluster of grapes down there those three that's part of the reason it's called that but just you can use that figure in your mind to help you distinguish that that the set goal is a cluster of grapes so the said goal is that that looks like a cluster of grapes underneath the two and the one below it and then that say they say they is the long e sound which is a in Hebrew just like in Spanish that say they yo'd is a longer form of it alright and what is this vowel called hideki Beck okay it is sometimes pronounced as the short vowel in bit the iCLASS val sometimes like machine and these will have to figure out as we go along and when you have the hear echoed it is always long it's always the e sound and then this vowel is called kibbutz kibbutz alright and this one Sharik it's the e sound this one is called Holum and when we add the Wow it becomes whole them Wow they both have the same sound if there's any distinction it would be that the O sound is shorter in pronunciation in the first and is longer in the second and then this is the one that you've been asking about that we'll get to and have a better understanding when we study the syllables and the way syllables are formed and that's the Comets tattoo also called the Comets toph because sometimes it has the old class sound of an awl like in God and sometimes the new class sound that's very similar to the kibbutz so this in this place it's okhla look la is the way you pronounce this word the schwa is silent in this case because it closes the syllable and the syllable is unaccented remember in Hebrew the accent normally goes on the last syllable unless otherwise indicated the schwa has two forms it can be vocal the sound or it can be silent it's silent when it closes syllable its vocal when it opens a syllable will be distinguishing that as we look at syllables it is transliterated by a super linear e then the half vowels the hot if Pathak hot if seagull and hot if comets all are transliterated according to their valve classification but their sounds are identical to that of the schwa you cannot distinguish the four half bowels in sound there's no distinction in sound occasionally we'll slip up and try to make a distinction in some way like in the name of God Elohim but it's Elohim it's it's really you have it's not really the air as in the sigil and it's something that we get in a habit of doing but it really wouldn't be that way in classical Hebrew you cannot distinguish these sounds but we do distinguish them as far as their form and as far as their transliteration and that has to do with the way the words are formed and made and pronunciations derived they have to do with what the original form of the word was and the changes it goes through when you put endings on it or prefixes on it yes David so the memorize vocabulary will agree any words that are distinguished despite difference commish was or they the cameras there's no distinction of sound so it's just a distinction in form it's significant for you to remember all four of them and to be able to distinguish them as far as their names and the forms because it becomes important as you're forming words later in following the rules of Hebrew okay yes say every day but then that's right is it not it's a divine actually it's very short and and this is where we've actually got into a habit of probably pronouncing it more like modern Hebrew and it's a modern affectation to try to distinguish those sounds like Adonai Elohim we have the air we have the app and it probably is not that way and we use it because it's so common it's so common but in the classical situation as far as we can tell and no there is no distinction and sound that the only reason we have hot if vowels these three vowels are because the master it's determined that it was significant it was a significant clue to the reader of Hebrew to know what would the original vowel was in the situation and so the hot if Pathak is signaling that the original full vowel in this situation of an uninflected form would have been a Pathak as opposed to a common source ago and so it's a clue that helps us with regard to the word history and the original pronunciation of an uninflected form okay all right other questions in that regard it's a good question those are the things we have to get used to in the way the language works and as you go further in the language some of these things will begin to make sense there is what we call a learning lag in languages that means that the information we take in is not immediately assimilated 100% we assimilate at different rates every one of you is assimilating the information receiving at a different rate that's why there's so much repetition involved in learning a language for the first time that's why as we're going through we present a lot of information in class and then you read it again as you read the reading assignment and you find it repeated and sometimes you give you information three or four lessons ahead because it needs that constant repetition even before you read it to help you better understand it because there's that learning leg we have every one of us has it and so that when you reach the end of a semester of Hebrew the grades you have in the semester of Hebrew after taking the final exam is not really reflective of the knowledge you have the language it is affected by how long or how big your learning lag is because up here you have a certain amount of information information but you have not yet assimilated it and understood exactly how it all works you know that this is a hot of Pathak but why in the world would it be necessary to have such a thing that has no distinction of pronunciation all these things will come later as we come along and even at the end of the semester you may have some of these things that we've covered early in the semester that haven't quite kicked in but believe me it will if you stick with it it will come in that's why I see a pattern of grades in elementary Hebrew sometimes of a person has a very low grade first semester and second semester is better and third semester is even better because he has a learn large learning lag and first semesters kicks in as he's starting the second semester you get to the third or fourth week of second semester he says ah now I understand what we were told in the eighth week of the first semester right that's language learning that's language learning if any of you are planning to go into missions you're going to have to face that in learning a spoken language you'll have the same difficulty and suddenly things will kick in you have to give it time and has to have time to root and grow and produce you're also three different kinds of learners and I told you I'd talk to you a little bit about this there are those of you who are visual learners you want to see it you want to read those things are that's what you need to do others of you are audio learners you say well I forget about the book forget about writing and I just want to hear it you know and some of you are so quick that you hear it and it's gotten even if you haven't seen it when we were getting ready to go to Bangladesh as missionaries and we were homeschooling our four children at that time I had a one day when I said okay I'm going to do something very different we need to get these kids outside we need to do something different we need to have something very practical get away from algebra get away from Latin get away from science all these other things let's do something very different so I said let's go find out about an automobile so I took them outside after I gave them a lecture inside I said now we're going to go out to the automobile we're going to open the hood I'm going to show you how to open the hood and then we're going to take a look at the radiator we're going to take a look at where the oil is placed to lubricate the engine we're going to talk about the fan and fan belt we're going to talk about the air filter I'm going to show you how to remove an air filter and then I'm going to show where the spark plugs are and the spark plug wires and all the things are involved with that and then I'm going to show you how to change a tire in case you ever had that problem this is before any of them were ever a driver the oldest that time was 13 so it's still two years before he'd start driving so I gave the lecture inside I went outside and I said now which of you remembers what we are doing and how to do it because I described everything inside my older son step forward and immediately opened the hood with no problem went directly to all the different parts and everything because he is an audio learner he did not need to see it but our younger son is a visual learner he said I wouldn't have been able to do it dad but now that Nate's done it I can I can see it you know I have to be shown I have to see it our younger daughter our older daughter Susan our older daughter still wasn't getting it she had heard it we went outside she saw her older brother go to it she saw her younger brother go through the same process but she when we when I asked her to do something she said dad I don't remember so I took her hands and put her hands on the wing nut on the air filter cover and said debute this is the air filter and you turn the wing nut this way and open it and once she had done it she could do it again she was a keen aesthetic learner the same with changing attire I described how to change a tire they went out our older son could change it with just hearing the instructions before he remembered and can do it younger son had to watch the older brother do it our older daughter had to actually do it again I had to take her hands and sure exactly how to do the things how to place the jack what to do with the Jack how to get it to go up how to get it to come down how to put the lug wrench on which which into the lug wrench because that for part one which end of that to put in there and how do I know that all those things then what do you do if the if the lug nut is too tight she had to actually do those things before she could understand kinesthetic learning now if you're a kinesthetic learner for Hebrew you've got to work extra hard you've got to make your own flashcards for study don't rely on computer don't rely upon things that are already made for you you need to be involved in hands-on work that will help to cement that in you need to write out you need to create and make your own flashcards you need to create games for yourself you need to post post-it notes all over your mirror at home so that when you're shaving and brushing your teeth you've got them there to pronounce and you've got to start thinking about different things that are going on you've got to think when the Sun rises up you say Bo care Tove good morning then when the sun goes down you say bo care of and you've got to do it you got to practice it with your children you've got to try to teach your children because by the doing of it you're going to learn and maintain the language and we'll have exercises in class when we get to that level of comprehension of what is said we're like with prepositions I'll have you put in your hands over the table under the table beside the table etc in order for you to better understand and the keen aesthetic learners are going to gain from that more than anyone else so learn what kind of learner you are it will help you in learning languages will help you learning many things they'll help you make up you don't you're not deficient in learning you learn by a different method you can learn just as well just as accurately you just have to find out I'm a visual learner that's why I make all kinds of charts I draw pictures I use illustrations even on my powerpoints when I'm teaching Sunday school it's not so much for the class as for myself but I've learned that if I need to do it for myself there's other visual learners that need the same thing for you kinesthetic learners in a couple of weeks I'm going to bring in my Hebrew Scrabble board all right we've got all kinds of things that's why we have song songs is another way to do language we had the alphabet song for kinesthetic learners audio learners really benefit from that but so do kinesthetic learners so find out what kind of learner you are and look for that but anyway all that just to say don't be concerned if some things just don't seem to quite click yet this is only the second week that we're closing and most of you are still in last week all right you're still with the alphabet and this the vowels this week are just extra stuff they're trying to route now why do I have to have these what do I do with them all of those things it will all come to pass and it will fall in place eventually as we go through now let's talk about the vocal schwa the vocal schwa when you have a schwa that two dots under a letter beginning a syllable or beginning a word it is vocal now in your textbook all of this is explained to you starting on page 37 I believe it is it's chapter 4 it's your reading for next Tuesday I believe and you want to I want to go over this ahead of time with you and I want you then reinforce it by reading it on sched but the the schwa then is vocal in this case this is where we can also show a difference between modern Hebrew and classical Hebrew classical Hebrew says shim or shamora that means to keep preserve it's an imperative shamora keep alright Shamar but modern Hebrew says shmore shmore the schwa is totally silent modern Hebrew now with the passage of time you understand why this is important for classical Hebrew but for the time being just learned that with the schwa begins a word or begins a syllable it is vocal gets that up sound following full letter vowels it is vocal because full letter vowels are so long that they keep their syllable open so show marine in modern Hebrew Shum show marine it's actually two syllables show and then ream it's not shown it's not a closed syllable closed syllables where a consonant closes the syllable finishes the syllable this isn't shown because that Holum Wow is a full letter vowel and cannot reside in a closed syllable okay so there its vocal and it's show marine very short show marine show marine and then back to back in the middle of a word the first schwa because you cannot have two silent choir's back to back and you cannot have two vocal choir's back to back so the first one is silent closing the first syllable yesh yesh and the second one is vocal opening the next syllable yesh miroux yesh marui everyone plants it with me yesh marui okay yesh marui alright and when you have a doubling doggish you have the same situation you had in the previous one except it isn't written out for you it's written shorthand that we know that's a doubling doggish because the letter what letters this tape is not a begad too fast let er it's not a begad fast letter so the doggish doubles it so there are two tapes so it's KITT to Lou KITT to Lou everyone KITT to Lou so you have a doubling doggish that means that in essence has two tastes that are pronounced and the first tape has as it were a silent schwa that's understood and the second tape has as it were a vocal schwa understood in other words it is the same situation we had here but it's not all written out for us it's written shorthand okay yes John no the job the DA is a doggish the dot the two dots below are the schwa the two dots below are the schwa the dot in the bosom of the letter is the doggish laney the doggish okay Jeremiah back to back what was was the first name there why is the first one even there because the mas'r eats starting 500 AD determined that in the written form of vocalizing the language and representing the spoken pronunciation that every constant must have a vowel under it so it's a master etic rule it's an artificial rule it's an artificial rule in our transliterating of it though we will not put the transliteration there because it's silent okay but it is artificial and this is part of the artificiality of the mass Heretic pointing of the Hebrew they tried to come up with a system of rules by which they could visually represent how the language is being vocally pronounced and in coming up with these rules they end up with some rules that don't make a whole lot of sense they end up with some rules that seem inconsistent but they tried to be consistent all the way through and rule like this you'd think they could just leave it out but they put it in and therefore that creates a job for you to learn why what has happened here and so when you see the schwa you have to ask the question which did they intend the silent or the vocal and the surroundings of it the syllables that you create from it is how you determine okay if you have a schwa under the first of two identical consonants and here's where you have another exception Jeremiah in front of two identical consonants the first one here you'd say well this is going to be then a silent schwa you think but because it's followed immediately by to their Lama didn't notice there's no vowel under it it's vowel is here so Lu is here but this is going to be vocal this swab will be vocal so it's not Hal Lu it's hallelu isn't that what we learned in even our anglicized version of Hebrew when we say hallelujah you've been speaking Hebrew for a long time every time you said I mean every time you said hallelujah every time you said cherubim or Serafim or cherub or or serif you've been speaking Hebrew all right and this is hallelu it's a vocal SH Watts vocal because it is a schwa proceeding it's under a consonant that is followed by the identical constant all right and that's a rule that is going to be hard to remember from time to time but give yourself time six weeks from now as we run into examples it'll begin to finally click and you say oh yes that's what we're told and after so many usages it finally becomes natural and understandable so those are situations in which the schwa is vocal that a sound all right the silent schwa whenever it is under a letter closing a syllable like yeesh more yeesh more we know this is a closed syllable because the hearing is not a hearing code a hear a code is a long vowel that must remain open this is the short vowel the short hearing yeesh more when it's fought when it when it follows an accented syllable when you have a syllable that is accented like you have the accent here over the low-mid that's lake not lake not okay it is a silent schwa one is placed on a accented and accented syllable Lake na no sound for it as Jeremiah said would make a lot of sense just leave it off all right the vowel as' final cuff has a schwa meant it is silent this is Melek you've heard the Hebrew names ABI Melek you've heard the name of melchizedek there are many uses of Melek in Hebrew and Melek means king notice the accents on the first syllable notice the accent over that first syllable Milic is king that schwa in the coat in the coughs of so feet is silent and then when you have them back-to-back at the end you violate the - choise andro cannot be silent this becomes Hamer sha merit both are silent it's an exception to the mass retic rule and it's the exception is because it's at the end and as we talk about the rules of making syllables this one will suddenly become evident when we get to that after the break we'll come back and we'll take a look at that again and you'll suddenly have an understanding because of the way syllables are form the rules which are very different than in English and then when you have a back to back in the middle of the word the first schwa is silent the second is vocal always I say always advise ly remember because in Hebrew there's always exceptions to rules including that one but you would expect it be yeesh Meru yeesh Meru okay the first one is silent the second one is vocal as we get started again let me mention the newspaper article that I found in the Los Angeles to earth excuse me the Daily The Daily News that was on August the 26th Saturday August 26 and it said college to debut Hebrew program and it's Valley College and Valley Glen and the professor there Zev Garber aged 65 has been teaching Hebrew since 1963 and I was looking at that and thinking about it and I thought okay he has been teaching Hebrew approximately four or five years longer than I and one of the things he says here about the language is that it is the core of understanding Judaism is the core of understanding the Hebrew Bible and he talks about how that Hebrew can be difficult to learn because it uses an unfamiliar alphabet is read from left to right there are different pronunciations he talks about that as well a number of issues here but there same thing about it is his emphasis on the fact that is of great value to understand Hebrew because with it you gain a better understanding of not only the Jewish people but of the Hebrew Bible and that's one of the reasons why that College is starting a program now for secular students for this secular university is because they believe it is a significant important thing to do and his goal is that they not only speak modern Hebrew but they be able to read classical Hebrew be able to read the Hebrew text well let's talk now about syllabification how do we form syllables this is important for us to understand why certain things are done and by the way while I'm at it the assignment sheet has the reading of chapter three is what's due Tuesday and chapter four is Thursday you had no chapter to read for today I got ahead of myself there so we're we're still moving though in those chapters in that realm and the discussion of syllables begins on page 40 of your textbook it's in Chapter four that is due on Thursday a week from now and gives definitions or syllables and explanation etc and when we think of syllables we think of words like in English we say division division division has three syllables the vision now the day is a short schwa type of pronunciation it's an unaccented syllable so it loses its emphasis and we pronounce it as short but we in English divide that as a syllable but not so in Hebrew syllables can only be formed with regular vowels not half bowels half vowels cannot form syllables by themselves in Hebrew you say well why why can't we just do it like we do in English because the rules of Hebrew for both pronunciation and for the way that words change and develop when you add suffixes on them and prefixes on them require that we understand that rule for syllabification that was devised actually it was not devised by the master eats it's the master eats figuring out what is the scientific way to describe what happens in the Hebrew language and then they propose these rules for syllabification that fit the way the language was conveyed the way the language is formed and the way the language is pronounced the first rule is that only full vowels not full letter vowels only full vowels like comets patek Sehgal kibbutz Sharik Holum only those vowel can form syllables here akio-san a owed your Holum Wow all of those are full vowels only full vowels can form syllables half vowels cannot form syllables half vowels cannot form syllables no schwa no hot day can form a syllable and there'll be one other vowel we'll talk about as well to form syllables you begin at the end of the word and work forward in the word so when you build syllables in Hebrew you must start at the end of the word okay don't start at the beginning you start at the end of the word to find out where the syllables must be divided so that if we have a word like Ayla and there's usually an accent over the top of this but when you pronounce that we have a doubling doggish because the lama D is not a begad cough a flutter so how do we form syllables we begin at the end of the word we find the first full vowel and the first full vowel starting at the end the word is what Sehgal Sehgal and we divide there since the lammott is doubled then you divide through the low mid and you become and you have to remember to watch out for half vowels and doubling dog issues as you go through this but that's the key is the center there that doubling doggish so that we divide it as though it were this way this is the syllabification okay it's ale let okay let's take another word we begin at the end what's the first full valve from the end hold them well what's the next full valve from the end the holo so how many full vowels do we have in this word that's all the syllables we can have them so then we have to ask then what do we do with the schwa the schwa is the problem here so we have to determine is this schwa vocal or silent if it's vocal it goes with the following syllable it begins the following syllable if it's silent it closes the preceding syllable you have a whole my would indicate that it's long and therefore it cannot normally be closed except here it's closed because it's at the end of the word this Holum stays open because here it's treated as a long vowel how do you learn that how do you get that straight you have to just learn how the language is pronounced this is never told oat it stole adult Toula do't pronunciation so here it's the vocabulary you learn that's going to help you remember because the Holum by itself can be short as well as long depends on the word form itself on the word form itself and it be too long an explanation to go back to the ancient languages an Akkadian and describe why this came to be this way but believe me this is a vocal schwa and so this whole limb is treated is open not closed so strike everything else I said keep this in mind so since it Street is open then toe and then the low-mid with the schwa is a vocal schwa because it begins the following syllable rather than closing the previous one John unless you know the vocabulary and memorized its pronunciation number one the schwa make the what it is it is a whole to make wall but it is the use of the wealth that's a good question you know you know how a Hebrew would answer you because I've had them do this with me they would say that's just the way it is why do we pronounce it that way we don't know but that's just the way it is and perhaps they're right on that but there is an explanation on the way the word was formed originally in the past that would explain but that's not what want to go through here so this is an example where it's one you just have to know the vocabulary on its pronunciation and trust that all right now how many of you recognize this word try to pronounce it Chadd can you pronounce it how about you Kyle No all right campus remember the Yoda is a wise sound pat dak ass so the first is yeah yeah a cold right yeah cold Jacob it's the Hebrew for Jacob yeah cold alright now when you pronounce that notice you have the in there ya Cove because it is a compound schwa alright so how do we divide this well start at the end of the word what's the first full vowel Holum what's the next full vowel the Pathak the Pathak okay so that you have how many syllables then to because you have only two felt full vowels how to divide it well you have to divide it then because you have a vocal schwa compound straws are always vocal so vocal choir's begin a syllable so at Cove is the first syllable and yeah is the second syllable okay vocal choir's always open they don't close you won't find vocal choir's at the end of a syllable there at the beginnings of syllables okay let's take another example where is the first full vowel the Sharik where is the second full vowel that's not a whole that's the dot over the left horn for a scene and you know it's not a hole in because it already has a vowel underneath it notice it has a schwa underneath all right now if if there were no vowel underneath the scene then the dot can do double duty it can be both a Holum and the dot for the scene remember the Hebrew rule every consonant must have a vowel with the exception of final consonants okay we saw that in yak Cove pull adult alright the final hey and Ayla is a silent Hey it's a seagull hey type of owl alright so we have a schwa there so the dot over the scene is not a hole it's just the dot over the scene so what's the first full vowel after the Sharik here Nick here ik the hearing under the ODE the dot on the yodh inside the ODE that's the doubling doggish no doubling doggish mm-hmm alright and then what's the next full valve pat tech okay I've run Pat back everyone say Pat back alright so then as we look at this we going we're going to have three syllables three syllables now we know if we have two choir's together in the middle of the word the first schwa is silent so it closes a syllable the second schwa is vocal show it opens a syllable so we're going to divide between the two choir's so as we look at this the first syllable is new the second syllable is yesh the first that the third syllable is way and it's silent schwa and it's pronounced Y because a Pathak followed by a yo'd even when the yo'd is normally used as a consonant is pronounced I so this is why yeesh why yes excuse me why yes new why yes new everyone why yes new again why yes new okay now you have a vertical line here that vertical line is representing an accent it's called a secondary accent and here it is utilized to demonstrate that this Pathak syllable is it considered an open syllable in other words it has only a vowel sound it's not way trying to put a yeah in there it's why just like you'd pronounce why the letter Y okay it's Y East new and it is a secondary accent it's like when you have multiple accents in an English word you have one that has a light accent syllables no then you have a sild with a major accent this is a secondary accent so it's way it's not ooh the accent is still the primary accent still at the end y-yes no ooh okay so that's how you divide the syllables Jeremiah it does not double the vowel in this case because of the yo'd yes it does in others all right you have to watch that very carefully now in most cases though a doubled consonant like this one up here silent schwa silence wah and in fact you asked the question does it double the valid only doubles the valve if it's a schwa it cannot double any other vowel it doubles the constant and doubling the constant the first constant always has a silent choie sew in clarification it never doubles the hearing it doesn't double the Segel it doubles the consonant doubles the constant and prizes with a silent schwa so why yes No ooh all right Kelly i buy the Pathak it looks like it's just a straight-up line that's a straight up down line it's an accent it's a secondary accent okay like wow or is this not news or something it's just an accent we'll get used to accents later I've left very few of the men but secondary accents I try to leave in so you can get used to them okay yes David grown-ups location the last word other than yours what is that visit yeah - wha two dots and then you have the secondary accent that goes with the Pathak okay all right other questions good questions please ask these because I want to make certain everything's clear all right and even though this is being taped and recorded remember those who hear this or watch this are going to have some of the same questions they learn from your questions they do not have me present to answer them so your questions help them to find the answer the questions they have but they don't have someone to ask so please feel free to do this now the next one we begin again at the end of the word right what's the first full vowel the Holum what's the second full vowel here Dec so we're going to have how many syllables two so again here we have two choise to watch out for but they're both going to be silent Tim Lok how do we know it in this case because this happens to be a verb and the Tao is a verb prefix and therefore we know that it's going to be a silent schwa here okay how many full vowels are in this word it's the word meaning dream Colome only one only one full valve ember the hot tips the goal is a half vowel therefore how many syllables are there only one syllable there is no division this is a one syllable word where's the first full vowel the Comets in the cops'll feet where's the next full vowel comets under the lawmen where's the next full vowel the Sehgal under the olive how many syllables will we have three because we have three full vowels where do we put half Val's if their vocal they go we're at the beginning of a syllable if they're silent they go we're at the end in looking at this word we have three situations of half vowels a schwa that begins a word is what vocal or silent vocal so the first SWA can't form a syllable by itself it's got to be vocal all right the second schwa can be either vocal or silent we're going to take it as silent because the C goal is a short vowel as opposed to a long valve along Valis say V and the hot if path AK is what always vocal compound choir's are always vocal so it will go with what follows it so we divide it haka is one syllable la is a syllable what ich is a syllable okay that syllable has three vowel pointings the first schwa is vocal but cannot form a vowel by itself the second schwa is silent it closes the syllable we still have only one full vowel and so what ich is one syllable what ich la caja everyone what ich la cough again what la tête calm all right we're getting longer here the test all right this time identify for me where the problems will be where are the problems here the problems aren't ever with the full vowels right because they always form a syllable the problem is with half vowels especially if there's a simple schwa if they're the simple Schwaab we have to determine whether they are vocal or silent so where are the problems here the schwa under the Xin the schwa under the lawmen all right these are the problems we have three half vowels old coat is one syllable tau is one syllable the he SH is one syllable okay Jeremiah how do we know the dog is here is Eleni and non doubling doggish first of all it's a begad calf at letter so that's the first thing we're going to think of is that is most in fact no matter what whether it's doubling or whether it's not doubling it's still a dog Ashley knee it will harden that begad calf a letter but in some cases it serves double duty in being both the hardening letter and being the doubling of the letter alright and as we look at this particular word and we're going through it this happens to be a Hebrew verb and it's going to be that this is not a doubling doggish this is not a doubling doggish and you'll have to wait till later when we talk about the formation of these kinds of verbs to actually see why but this is a hardening doggish only so therefore it's not divided to where this has and also noticed that if you take if this is a hardening doggish you can rule this out one other way just by the rules of slap fication if this is a doubling doggish you would divide it how it'd be a towel with a silent schwa can you put a towel with a silent schwa here no you can do that at the end of the word you can't do it in the middle of the word so it's not going to be lucky shhhhht tock hold taco old okay so you can rule that out that way but it is easier to see if you come from it from the angle of the form of the Hebrew verb so we have leche Pat all right now let's get that out of the way and let's try something very very different Isaiah 63 you can read Hebrew you may not understand it you can read it alright think about the first word remember Hebrew reads right-to-left Dennis pronounce the first word force say that again okay now what's the first vowel in that word okay Komets has what sound ah as in the English word father not pronounce it right make sure you get that aw in there very clearly don't shorten it because it sounded like you were making a short half vowel like Kadosh it's cod douche okay everyone kadosh again cod Doge what's the second word Scott Jackson right what's the third word Henry or Kenny not Henry Kenny condole SHhhh so we have it three times in a row right kadosh kadosh kadosh from studying the vocabulary for the quiz for Tuesday morning what does kadosh mean holy so what are we saying in Hebrew that's not indicating a Trinity in the Godhead that's a false argumentation if you're going to do that then you're going to have to have three planets planet Earth's when jeremiah says Oh earth earth earth alright edits edits Eretz or you have to have three over turnings and destructions when Isaiah says I will overturn overturn overturn triplets are used in Hebrew for emphasis all right this means that God is supremely holy most holy we talk about the holy of holies this is the holy of holy of Holy's all right he is the holiest of all has nothing to do with Trinity whatsoever Hebrew grammar and syntax just talks about his supreme holiness he is most holy all right now the real tricky one we come to the fourth word the one in the second line alright Michael how would you pronounce this word yes no you got part of it too started there how about coming over here to Eric no Yahweh you do not pronounce the vowels that are there those vowels are artificially there they are artificially to remind you that for the Hebrew reader for the modern Hebrew reader for the Jewish reader that in their practice normally this would pronounce with Adonai Lord and so they take the half vowel under the olive and Edel 9 represented here because under a yo'd which doesn't require half of a compound schwa and they make it a simple schwa and the nigh ending is a comet's ending under the noon of Adonai and so it's merely there as a device to say to them don't pronounce the Tetragrammaton all right now we'll talk more about that later on but that's a false concept created by heretical Jews in Alexandria Egypt two hundred and fifty years before Christ with a misinterpretation of the third commandment and you can find that out by reading the Jewish encyclopedia which will tell you that and will tell you that it was actually pronounced before and you can talk to Orthodox Jewish rabbis today and they will tell you that in their discussions and their reading of scripture among themselves for a holy purpose and in a spiritual study of the word they will pronounce the title Yahweh all right you pronounce it Yahweh as you read it okay Tom Yahweh yeah first of all the yah did you have a comments hey the hey as a silent vowel letter it's not Yahweh don't cut it off that way that's that's a affectation of actually Gentile speakers that you don't hear in Hebrew speakers its yah not yah all right and it's way because the Wow the Wow and then you have in the Hebrew it actually be a sigil hey a set goal hey and the sigil hey is pronounced like at City okay both Hayes are silent Yahweh okay alright so it pronounced that Yahweh don't pronounce the vowels through there this is something just have to learn all right special pointing now yet Scott just for that word because just for that word that's right that's the only reason and it's the only word no you just needed no correct ignore the vows okay alright then the last word it'd be pronounced how Jeff who doesn't have the broken collarbone so so notice the vocal schwa set sefa oh okay sefa old everyone sefa old so we have Yahweh 7o what step out me from your vocabulary armies or hosts hosts is the old-fashioned translation so it's saying holy holy holy is your the armies all right you're reading scripture now fourth class in Hebrew you're reading Scripture so while we're on a roll let's do another one all right Greg pronounce the first word for me okay remember the schwa the beginning vocal is but okay but what's the next vowel the two dots side-by-side save a but Ray he Beck e okay but a sheet but a sheet every one but a sheet all right the next word Gus okay then get all the odd in there okay bara okay bara everyone bara the all of the silent okay the next word begins with a compound schwa which will be like a vocal schwa let's see here Jeremiah okay now notice he used the air as in Segel because hot ifs ago in your textbook you're told that the compound choise the schwa self is not pronounced instead you pronounce the vowel that is with it formed with it that is for modern pronunciation and for the purpose of pedagogical learning to try to distinguish that you see these things but in actuality in the ancient Hebrew it was all pronounced the same it was always the uh so we've learned to say Elohim ok Elohim it would be actually eloheem be barely there with the first part of Elohim alright now the last line Kelly the first word not as not Sehgal it's not the grape cluster it's two dots eight yes eight it's the daily okay John milk on how about the next word okay have remember the path back hash sha Mayan and notice the doubling doggish machine hash Sean Maggie okay everyone hash a man modern Hebrew says ha-shamayim alright we're bouncing us biblical hebrew the next one is what eight and the last one is what james leave ah okay audits ha artists okay let's read it all together from start to finish bar a sheet bara Elohim ape hash malum what 8 ha aras Genesis 1:1 in the beginning God created the heavens in the earth so you can read scripture now you should be able pick up any part of the Hebrew Bible and now read it because you have the constants their sounds and the vowels and their sounds start practicing that immediately with everything you see in Hebrew you

Channel: The Master's Seminary

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Keywords: Dr. Bill Barrick, The Master’s Seminary, Learn Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew Grammar, Hebrew, Old Testament Language, Bible Languages, Biblical Hebrew (Human Language), Hebrew Language (Human Language)

Id: UkWrnj5Ikv0

Length: 72min 18sec (4338 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 15 2012